Investigations

The following investigative assignments, sponsored by the Taco Kuiper Trust, provided a platform to launch Roving Reporters investigative journalism programme catering for journalism students at the Durban University of Technology.

From a fight over a bicycle to body bags

When Roving Reporters presented a class of final year journalism students a story about two young hijackers shot dead by police – both convicted for murder when they were respectively 11 and 14 years old – a host of applications were received to take part in a cutting edge investigative assignment that ultimately exposed a broken link in the justice system. Our case study, Tale of Two Hijackers, an abridged version of which was published in The Daily News, documents the epic journey that three selected students embarked on, providing insights not only into the lives of two boys-turned-serial-hijackers, but also a broken link in the justice chain – and some realities of police work never told before.

“Powerful stuff . . . The last journalism I read that was this compelling was in the New Yorker.” – Matthew Hattingh, former news editor, Daily News

The Turtle Butcher

This investigation also arose from Roving Reporters presenting a Daily News front page lead story, Five years for Turtle Butcher. to a class of journalism students, who all wanted to know more about the man who had been sentenced to five years in jail for killing an endangered loggerhead turtle in the iSimangaliso World Heritage Site, and more specifically why he had killed the turtle. Roving Reporters subsequent investigation exposed a host of complex social, environmental and development issues that have led to strained relations between conservation authorities and the people battling to survive in the Kosi Bay area of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. Read The Turtle Butcher; I don’t belong in this place; The outsider and The life of Makotikoti.

Click here to read about other assignments that students tackled with the support of the Taco Kuiper Trust Fund of Investigative Journalism.